I think there is still pressure to marry. I think there is still pressure to have children. If you're middle or upper class, those pressures exist at a later age now.

Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.

Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try

We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life.

People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination

I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating

We have to make mistakes, its how we learn compassion for others

I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.

Obviously the bar is much higher now for a behavior to be scandalous. Social media has really changed the way people live. It's not a new impulse; it's just being enacted in a new way.

I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing.

I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors

Everyone has the power to inspire and serve the world.

With free will comes inevitable error and misjudgement

I use color in terms of emotional quality, as a vehicle for feeling... feeling is everything I have experienced or thought.

Despair is the only cure for illusion.

I really like rustic mediterranean cooking. And I like trying out curry takeaways.

I tend to delay writing by doing more research - it's really the act of writing the piece that I have the hardest time with.

Though he love not to buy the pig in the poke.

I don't envisage I will be captain again, but for two England managers, Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello, I was their first choice and I'm proud of that.

American advertisers rely on 'essentially illogical' approaches to determine their advertising budgets.

Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.